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I need a bit of perspective here. I've taken my time to learn about affiliate marketing and feel I'm ready to jump in, but am having a hard time finding my passion. I'm very interested in Mexico and life there and the culture, but don't really see how that would lend itself to affiliate sales. So I thought that maybe I should take advantage of my spanish skills and the growing number of spanish speaking web users, but I really don't know if this is a market that pays a lot (less online purchases, shipping issues, etc).
I was going through some OLD threads here and a lot of people said, oh yeah, if I spoke spanish, I'd make spanish sites. But what kind of sites and what kind of products?
Any ideas or forceful shoves in the right direction would be greatly appreciated!

I know a paid search affiliate who does all the non-English campaigns for a large outdoor product merchant and make $30k per month. The merchant doesn't have the staff or skill set for the other languages and let's the affiliate have trademark easement.

Perhaps you could start with niche Spanish pages where you see a gap for the merchant.

Chuck, I appreciate your reply and advice but it sure has made me realize I have a lot to learn. I see what you wrote, and I know what all the words mean, but for some reason when I put it all together, I just don't grasp it. For example, I can't understand what a "paid search affiliate who does all the non-English campaigns" means. And while I understand the concept of niche sites, I don't know what you mean by finding one where I see a gap for the merchant.
I swear I am intelligent and normally a quick learner, but I seem to be missing some basic concepts. I know this site has all the answers I need, but it is hard to find a starting point. Do you recommend any book or affiliate "special ed" for a case like me???

I can't understand what a "paid search affiliate who does all the non-English campaigns" means

He is talking about an affiliate who bids for paid ad placements in Spanish.

I would say just go ahead and do your en Espanol sites. Even if the market is small (and it's not), you will have much less competition than any "in English" affiliate would have. A big slice of the smaller pie is just as good as a small slice of the big one.

Davidh, THANK YOU! Your pie analogy was just what this over-analyzer needed to hear. I need to stop thinking and just do. But first, I have a sudden craving for coconut cream pie! Thank you for clearing my head!

When you search in Google and see the top three spots as sponsored ads (plus the one on the right side) those are paid search ads. An affiliate who specializes in them is focused on the keywords, ad copy and bid costs. This is also called PPC or pay-per-click. This type of affiliate wants to direct link and not build a site or landing page (squeeze page).

A niche site is a site that is focused on a narrow range of keywords. If I wanted to write about wine I would have to compete with 733,000,000 sites in Google. So search Google for wine and you will see just below the search box a number similar to 733,000,000. If I created a site for "laurel glen vineyard" then I cut that competition down to 118,000 and may have a good chance to rank well (Top 10 listing in Google). Use this site to help find total searches a month in Google: https://adwords.google.com/o/Targeti...AS#search.none

If your native language is Spanish, especially Latin American Spanish, go for it! Approximately 15% of the U.S. population at this time is Hispanic /Latino. That's many millions of people and many of them are actively on the Internet.

I would *not* suggest cross border shipping. Try to target people who live in the USA.
That said, one of my advertisers can *easily* ship to customers in Canada, from the USA.